Roberto Vittori is the second Italian ESA astronaut to visit the ISS, the first being Umberto Guidoni. On 25 April Roberto will commence a 10-day mission, codenamed Marco Polo, to the ISS on board a Russian Soyuz taxi flight from Baikonur in Russia, together with the Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gidzenko and the South African Mark Shuttleworth.
The Marco Polo mission was presented to the press at the Italian Space Agency (ASI) headquarters in Rome. Roberto Vittori took part through a video conference from Star City in Russia. In the photo Antonio Rodota', the Director General of ESA, can be seen addressing the conference and on his left is Prof. Sergio Vetrella, President of ASI. Behind them is the Marco Polo mission logo.